The Making of a Freethinker of Islam: Muhammad Asad: The Pakistan years (Part I)

Abstract

Austria-born Leopold Weiss (1900-1992), known as Muhammad Asad since his conversion to Islam in 1926, gained world fame through his impressionistic Road to Mecca (1954), which encapsu- lates his conversion and sojourn in Arabia (1927-32). The publica- tion of this quasi-autobiography also brought wider readership to his previous publications and notice of his involvement in Islamic revivalist movements. The publication of The Message of the Qurʾān (1980) further cemented his reputation as an Islamic scholar with a modernistic approach. More recently, he has been promoted as an ambassador of Islam, a bridge between Islam and the West, and a rationalist who truly understands the spirit of Islam. A master’s the- sis was written on his political thought at the University of McGill (1998); the entrance square to the UN Office in Vienna was named Muhammad Asad Platz (2008). Given his Jewish background, he is often described as builder of bridges between religious communi- ties. Homecoming of the Heart, the sequel to Road to Mecca, jointly written by Asad and his fourth wife, Pola Hamida, was posthu- mously published in 2012. Over the last half century, interest in the life and thought of Mu- hammad Asad has emerged and dissipated time and again. A biog- raphy (in German) has explored contours of his life up to his con- version, and a two-volume anthology has collected various writings about him, but no comprehensive study of the intellectual makeup of this remarkable Muslim has been undertaken to date. The present article is Part I of an in-depth study of the intellec- tual and spiritual makeup of a unique Muslim within the broader twentieth-century social and political currents that produced a sea-change in the traditional lands of Islam. Asad was placed at the heart of this change, first in Arabia and then in the Indian